Health Sec. Dr. Sergio Cortez Surveys the Xerém Area Flooding

In Xerém, Duque de Caxias, Brazil, The State Secretary of Health Sergio Cortes, and his evaluation team have just come back from surveying the most effected areas in the worst flooding seen here in a long time. Extra.Globo caught up with Dr. Sergio Cortes after the trip as he surveyed the damage to the area. Sector Cortes informs us that there is a large accumulation of garbage in the region and that the region has seen heavy flooding damage. He further explained that the garbage piles are helping to aggravate the already difficult situation. The end result on wikipedia is that the region has vast amounts of contaminated water that is posing a serious health risk to local population. The health risk from almost contaminated water involves pathogens like, dengue fever, yellow fever, not to mention that there are also a couple of viruses affecting either negatively. Mosquito that transmits the Chikungunya virus and also the quickly spreading the Zika virus.

State Sec. of Health Cortes explains that the Brazilian Minister of Health has just authorized use of up to 220,000 troops to help decontaminate the floodwaters that have ravaged northwestern Brazil. So were actually looking at several factors your including the unusually hot temperatures and of course the torrential downpours that caused flooding. Dr. Cortes tells us of the situation in the area will be dealt with an aggressive manner. The State Department of Health has already constructed seven shelters serve as both emergency shelters and as early detection treatment centers for series of maladies that have afflicted the region. In addition to sending in troops to go contaminate the floodwaters, the State Department of Health has also begun to hand out 10,000 bottles of sodium hypochlorite so that locals can also participate in the decontamination of standing water and so they may also contaminate their personal family water tanks back as they a residential reservoir for many families.

Dr. Cortes explains the symptoms of the Zika virus are actually very similar to both dengue fever and yellow fever. The Zika does bring rather mild symptoms and no major cause for alarm was evident until recently when the Zika virus has been linked to almost 4000 births of children with microcephaly. Microcephaly have previous been in a rare condition with only 146 cases and 2014. The alarming increase of these birth defects are starting to be going to the Zika virus.